Seductive Stranger

He stood there, looming above her, staring down in piercing scrutiny as if he looked right through her eyes into her very mind, and did not like what he saw. He might know the truth about his mother's long love-affair with James Allardyce, but he did not like to have it talked about. He preferred to shut his eyes to it, no doubt, as his father must have done for years. But perhaps his father hadn't known? As a child, she had often seen the Killanes together, and there had been a warm, affectionate feeling between them, which had particularly struck her because it was so different from the way things were between her own parents.

She had been too young then to know anything of the more intimate side of love; she wouldn't have recognised physical attraction if she had seen it, she had no idea what sort of love there had been between Josh's parents, but she did know one thing—they had cared for each other, they had been happy together, so perhaps Henry Killane had never guessed what was going on between his wife and James Allardyce?

Josh suddenly swung round and picked up the kettle, filling it from the tap.

'What are you doing?' Prue asked, taken aback.

'Making some tea.' He put the kettle on the stove without looking at her, and she scowled at him.

/> 'I'd rather you left now, please!'

'I have a few things I want to say to you, first,' he bit out. 'And I need a cup of strong tea before I say them.' He found big, yellow, earthenware mugs hanging on a line of hooks, opened the fridge and found milk, dug out some teaspoons, while Prue watched him, seething.

'I like the way you make yourself at home in my father's house!'

Josh ignored her, spooning tea into the teapot.

'I suppose just because your family own the land you think you own all the people who work on it, too!' she threw angrily at him.

He spun round, then, blazing with fury; she got the feeling he was going to hit her and stumbled backwards, which made him bare his teeth in a mimicry of a smile.

'Yes, I ought to slap you! You can think yourself lucky I have more self-control than you do, or I would! Now, just shut up while I finish making this tea.'

'Don't you shout at me!' Her brief flash of fear over, Prue was in a belligerent mood again, but so was Josh.

'Sit down!' he bellowed, and something about the way he looked at her made Prue obey. He made the tea and stirred the pot, then she watched him pour the tea. What did he have to say to her? she wondered, scowling. Or could she guess!

'I suppose you'd like me to pretend not to know about their affair?' she broke out as he turned, a mug in each hand. 'Well, don't worry, I won't say anything—I haven't mentioned it to my father and I wouldn't have said anything to you if you hadn't made me!'

'You don't have to say anything! You have other ways of getting your point across!' He handed her a mug in a very ungracious fashion, shoving it into her hands so that she almost dropped it. 'I don't like the way you watch my mother, or the look in your eyes every time you see her look at your father.'

'Sorry!' she snapped. 'I have my reasons—but I don't expect you to understand! It wasn't you and your mother who were driven away from home—it was me and mine! If I' m bitter, it's because I had to live with an embittered woman for years. All she talked about was what your mother had done to her. God forgive me, at times I was so sick of listening that I started blaming her! I thought she was a neurotic who'd invented it all. But she hadn't made it up, had she? It was all true.'

Josh leaned on the wall, facing her, nursing his mug between both hands, his angry, dark eyes fixed on her.

'Is that why you came back?' he asked slowly. 'Not to see your father again—but to find out how much truth there was in your mother's stories?'

Prue shrugged. 'I came for lots of reasons! I wanted to see my father again, and I wanted to see Yorkshire and the farm and the village, and everything I remembered, but I wanted to find out the truth, too.'

'Sure you didn't want to cause the maximum amount of damage to everyone who'd hurt your mother?' Josh asked in a neutral voice, and she shook her head, her face resentful.

'I don't think like that! You may be cold-blooded enough to go looking for revenge, but I'm not.'

'Oh, I wouldn't dream of suggesting you're cold-blooded,' he said drily, and smiled in a way that made. Prue uneasy. She was afraid of saying the wrong thing, so she silently gave him a hostile stare. After waiting a moment, Josh added softly, 'Although after watching you with your fiancé today, I did wonder!'

That hit her where she was vulnerable! Ever since she left the hospital, she had been feeling quarrelling with David while he was ill.

She blazed up, glaring at Josh. 'What do you mean by that?'

'Do you sleep with him?' he enquired in an apparently casual voice, and she turned scarlet, because he had unerringly touched on another painful question. David had wanted to make love to her months ago, but, perhaps because of the disaster love had been to her parents, she hadn't felt she could yet give herself, she wasn't ready for that final commitment and, although he had sighed, David had said he understood.

Josh's eyes glittered with a disturbing triumph as he watched her betraying expression. 'So you don't! I suspected as much.'

'Mind your own business!' she snarled, hating him—how on earth had he guessed?

'Does he know?' Josh drawled, perplexing her.

'Know?' she stammered, bewildered by the question.